AR for wholesale distributors
Every deduction
counts.
A distributor’s receivables are thousands of small invoices, a few hundred customers who each pay their own way, and deductions that cost more to research than most teams have time for.
Book a demoYou set the rules. Alder follows through.
Why it gets stuck
In distribution, the cash leaks in small amounts.
Deductions nobody researched
The customer paid $1,840 against a $1,912 invoice. The $72 could be a pricing error, a shortage, damage, or freight, and it sits on the ledger until someone digs in.
Proof of delivery on request
The customer says the order never arrived or arrived short, and won’t pay until someone finds the signed POD.
One payment, forty invoices
A large customer pays weekly in one lump sum, and the remittance arrives separately as an email, a PDF, or an EDI 820.
Buying groups and parent accounts
Payments come from a buying group or a parent company on behalf of members, under a different name from the account on the invoice.
Price mismatches
The customer paid the price on their PO, not the price on the invoice, and someone has to work out which one the contract supports.
A long tail nobody gets to
The team works the top accounts. Hundreds of smaller ones drift past terms without a single follow-up.
How Alder handles it
Alder starts read-only on your ledger. It shows you the deductions it would research, the matches it would post, and the follow-ups it would send, and anything that reaches a customer waits for your approval.
Researches every deduction
When a payment comes in short, Alder pulls the PO, the proof of delivery, the agreed price, and the email thread, and hands your analyst a recommended decision with the evidence.
Learn more: Researches every deductionMatches the payments
It matches lump-sum, parent-company, and buying-group payments to the invoices they cover, using the remittance wherever it arrives.
Learn more: Matches the paymentsWorks every account
Alder follows up across the whole aging ledger in the original email thread, so the smallest accounts get the same attention as the largest.
Learn more: Works every accountSends the document they’re waiting for
If a customer is holding payment for a POD, a corrected invoice, or a statement, Alder finds it and puts it in front of the right person.
How we deploy
We observe your workflow before an agent writes anything.
Your data is never used to train models, ours or anyone's.
Deployed inside your VPC or cloud account when required.
Every action an agent takes is logged, attributable, and reversible.
Questions
What are deductions in wholesale distribution?
A deduction is an amount a customer takes off an invoice when paying it. In distribution the common reasons are pricing differences, shortages, damaged goods, freight charges, returns, and promotional or rebate allowances. Each one has to be researched against the order, the delivery, and the agreed terms, then either recovered, credited, or written off.
How do distributors tell valid deductions from invalid ones?
By checking the deduction against the evidence: the purchase order and agreed price, the proof of delivery, the bill of lading, and any credit memo or allowance agreement. A deduction for a shortage the signed POD doesn’t support, or for a price the contract doesn’t allow, is usually recoverable.
What is an EDI 820?
An EDI 820 is the electronic payment order and remittance advice transaction. Large customers use it to tell a supplier which invoices a payment covers and what was deducted. Matching an 820 to open invoices is a cash application task.
Which ERP and accounting systems does Alder work with?
Alder connects to the ERPs distributors run, including NetSuite, Epicor Prophet 21, Epicor Eclipse, Acumatica, SAP Business One, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Sage, and QuickBooks. It reads remittances from EDI 820 files, email, and PDF.
Will Alder contact my customers without approval?
No. You set tone, escalation, and approval rules once, and anything that touches a customer waits for your approval. Every deployment starts read-only.
Free tools
DSO calculator
The DSO formula, worked examples, and a calculator for days beyond terms and cash tied up in AR.
AR aging report
Paste or upload your open invoices and get an accounts receivable aging report by customer, in your browser.
Remittance advice template
Fill in the payment and the invoices it covers, then download a remittance advice as a PDF.
Payment reminder & collections email templates
Seven payment reminder and collections emails for past-due invoices, from a first nudge to a final notice. Fill in your details and copy.
More of the work
Collections
Follow-up in the original thread, with every promise to pay tracked.
AP portals & approvals
Invoices submitted, rejections fixed, and the real approver chased.
Disputes & short-pays
Every short-pay researched, with a decision and the evidence behind it.
Cash application
Payments matched to open invoices, with the exceptions queued for review.
AR automation
Every receivables workflow Alder takes on, in one place.
Find out what your deductions are worth.
Thirty minutes on your open balances: how much is sitting in unresearched deductions, which of it is recoverable, and which accounts haven’t heard from you in months. Bring an aging summary if you have one.
Book a demo